Another bit of fun here! Can you believe its almost been 10 years?? As a Chugpilled Corecel I’m always leafing through that discography for little treats to share - andafter Mugshot, I was finally able to make the case to Connor that we should doMensis. “Do you think anyone will care?” Well, I know I do and by extension, I think you should to! If you’re a fan of Mugshot, but felt that the lyrical themes were mean ands direct enough then boy do I have the project for you!
Mensis is my favorite type of “great band has a side band that is very similar but maybe better in a lot of ways” type of band. It’s all the vocal aggression of Mugshot, but like, even more over-the-top. The music itself is like, if Mugshot was a bit more “hardcore” - embarrassing to say, but! This came out almost 10 years ago, haha. We were deep in the Facebook beatdown era, and there was a whole cache of bands on Chugcore who were tweaking it a little about. “Life is a Nightmare” is one of those cases where you have somethign that immediately registers as “core” but as you listen, its not just big breakdowns? It’s kind of like how Culture Killer is certainly a deathcore adjacent band, but so much more than that. There eis some riffage here. Like its some actual musicianship, and not just “lets go slow to leave room for the vocals” (even though they could have tbh. This vocal performance is just so ago lmao).
NO band has bigger callouts. NO band hates womanizers more. Its my favorite type of thing in the whole world - a rock slide 15 minute EP. One and done. Here’s the Mensis experience. 100% vision, executed perfectly. A beautiful single-sided EP that doesn’t have a slow moment in its entire runtime. Like not to be an old man but I think the EP is so vastly underrepresented in current year - its a descent in to singles and padding out stuff to be an LP. No nonsense here - Mensis just tells you what your win for in about half a song, and then rides that for the rest of the length. Most cohesive EP I’ve ever heard tbh I don’t even know haha.
From a WV process standpoint, this was also such a fun one. This was a classic case of “art waiting for the realease” - I’d been following Edmund Dantes for a long time, just absolutely enamored with his art. IT’s insane, but SO specific haha. I never thought I’d get an opportunity to use it for something. Lo and behold, we have the Mensis conversation and how else was I supposed to adapt this art? Truly just serendipity. YOu’ll notice all of his art is very colorful and bold, but where you invert the image, it hits those blues and blacks perfectly. Took. Few tries, but this whole packaging and presentation is just chocked full of awesome panels from Edmund.
As usual, Kai over at Lab.13 did an insane job on the layout on this. Took some really big risks that I htink you’ll enjoy. And Zach did some magic on this audio. Just such a polished presentation throughout - you’re going to love it!
This one time pressing is presented across 250 copies:
50 Judas Cradle (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Frat Boy (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Tryhard (Wax Vessel Signature)
50 Castrate Rapists (Wax Vessel Signature
50 Unlovable (Wax Vessel Signature)
All of this housed in:
1.5x thickness Matte jackets
Double sided matte full color insert
Black polylined innersleeves
Gold foil numbering
Stuffed into polybags
Hype Sticker’d
Custom WV Mailers
Matching WV Album art sticker
Really want to thank Connor again for trusting me with this material, its been a treat to get to work with him again! Orders for these go live on Friday, August 15th at 1:00pm CST. These are an “in hand” in the sense that they will ship in the next 30 days. They enter production in the next two weeks. Didn't quite get to sync it up, but they’ll be out the door before August is up I think! See ya then!
